If at first you don't succeed
by roofietoof
Summary: You try finding a free moment on this frakking ship. Sequel to Alone in the Cold.
1. Chapter 1

Warm. Gods, she felt warm. And tingly. Really, _really_ tingly. Her heart was racing. Her lips were soft and wet. She reached up to touch them, but found that something was in the way; someone _else's_ lips. Her eyes came open slowly.

"Do you know how beautiful you are?" Lee somehow managed to say even though his lips never left hers.

She was able to answer when his mouth started moving slowly downward onto her neck and collarbone. "Actually, no, 'beautiful' is not usually the adjective that people most use to describe me."

"That's just becausethey don't know the _real _you." He breathed as she ran her fingers through his hair.

"It isn't cold in here anymore." She said lifting her eyes up to look around their storage room prison as he continued his exploration of her upper body.

"It's still cold in here." He whispered matter-of-factly through the haze of his diligent dedication.

"In that case, why does the Colonial Fleet even bother with blankets? Just give them other people." She was able to mutter when she finally found enough breath to formulate the words.

"Because you don't get this warm with just _any_ other person." He grinned, finally looking up at her with his blinding blue eyes.

Her eyes came open quickly.

Her heart was still racing; she was still out of breath. She was still warm too. Warm, hell, she was dripping with sweat. She looked down at her body, fully cocooned in the blankets of her bunk.

"Frakking dream." She muttered lowly to herself as she raised her hand to cover her eyes. _It wasn't even a gods damn memory._ Son of a bitch didn't even have the guts to kiss her when they were laying like that, trapped together in that room. She turned to face the wall, intent on driving the image and sense memory of things that had never happened out of her mind so that she could get some sleep. _Yeah right. That's not gonna happen when every single extremity has bolts of electricity coursing through it._ The tips of her ears even tingled. How did he manage to do that to her from where he was laying, seven feet away? _Just sleep, Kara. _In her restlessness she turned back over again, and landed on her side facing out.

She saw him in his own bunk, those damn blue eyes staring back at her. He had a smirk on his face that she couldn't quite define. Was it arrogance? Was it promise?

"Hey, Starbuck." He whispered softly.

She felt naked, laid out in front of him like some sort of prize that he had won. She instinctively raised her blanket up around her shoulders. She was vulnerable, she was embarrassed, and she was _damn_ sure that she had closed the curtain on her bunk before she went to sleep.

He sighed a knowing sigh and she felt the fury seethe inside of her. She pulled back her covers and dropped her feet to the cold floor below. She slowly and tentatively padded over to his bunk and saw his eyes light up just before she grabbed his curtain…….and shut it on his face.

* * *

Kara was sitting in the mess quietly eating her food as Kat, Racetrack and Hotdog chattered on about things that she didn't care enough about to listen to. She was keenly watching the way her mashed potatoes moved as she shoved them around on her tray when her eyes jerked up at the sound of his voice.

"You guys mind if I join you?"

"Not at all, Captain." Racetrack said nodding to the chair that was across from Starbuck.

"Thanks." Lee said sitting down. He smiled at Racetrack before turning his eyes to Kara, drinking in every inch of her. "Hey, Starbuck."

She dropped her fork and it made a loud clang as it hit the metal of her tray. Her hand curled in a fist where it lay on the table. She roughly pushed her chair back. The others blanched at the noise it made as the legs skidded across the floor. She grabbed her tray and walked off without a word.

"Oh, man." Kat laughed, looking sympathetically at Apollo. "You don't even have to _try_ to get her mad at you anymore, do you?"

"Yeah, CAG. Normally I'd be impressed." Hotdog sighed. "But now I have to go fly CAP with her for the next six hours, so thanks for that." He said getting up to leave too.

Lee swallowed and chuckled nervously at the two women left at the table, wondering what the hell he did wrong.

* * *

Starbuck stood in the shower room with a bunch of others. She was in her bare feet, towel wrapped around her body and she was waiting for a shower stall to open up.

"How long will it take for them to fix it?" Kingston asked.

"Coupla hours." Frosty replied.

"And only these ones work?" Racetrack asked pointing to the first three stalls.

"Well, they all _work_," Frosty corrected. "But unless you wanna get frostbite….."

Kara saw Lee walk in the head. He had one towel wrapped around his hip, the other draped across his shoulders.

"You all wanna tell me why you're standing around?" He said joining them. "Don't you have places to be?"

"Water heater is busted, sir. None of the showers are hot except these three." Kingston answered gesturing at the occupied stalls.

"HURRY THE FRAK UP IN THERE!" Starbuck shouted as she pounded on the stall door. She gave up and turned to lean back against it.

He was staring at her. She glared right back at him.

"Hey, Starbuck." He said, his eyes traveling down to her bare feet and then back up again to look at her face. She looked like she wanted to hurl him up against the wall. The only thing was……… he wasn't sure what she wanted to do to him once she had him there.

She fumed, looking him up and down as well. "You losers can stay. I'll come back later when it's not so _suffocating_ in here." She hissed and gave him one last pointed look.

Lee torturously watched as she stomped off, sighed and then moved to get into the fourth stall.

"Hey, CAG?" Kingston called to him. "You go in that one and your shower's gonna be cold."

"Not really a problem right now!" Lee called as he turned the latch on the door.

* * *

"She's gotten better at trapping her landings, but she's still got a ways to go." Helo said to Lee as the two of them walked down the hall and Helo reported on a new Raptor pilot.

"You think she'll get better given a few weeks?" Lee asked looking down at the flight list that he held in his hands. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her walking down the hall in the other direction. He lifted his head and nodded at her. "Hey, Starbuck." He said as she walked past.

She stopped dead and turned around to shoot a look of pure hatred in his direction. "Just what in hell is that supposed to mean?" She fumed.

Lee stopped abruptly as well and turned around to face her. He chuckled in befuddlement. "'Hey, Starbuck'?"

"Yeah." She narrowed her eyes, glowering at him.

"I'm not sure, but I think it's supposed to mean: 'Hey, Starbuck.'" He answered, his voice getting louder with every word. "It's a form of greeting; Something that civilized people do in lieu of punching each other in the face."

"Sometimes a punch in the face is what's called for." She rasped out disgustedly and continued to her destination.

"Man." Helo looked at him, totally bewildered. "What did you do that's got her so pissed off?"

"Nothing." Lee sighed, still staring down the now-empty hall after her. "I think that's what's got her so pissed off."

* * *

"I'll take two." Starbuck said as Racetrack dealt her the cards.

"I bet five." Kingston added his money to the pot. "Somebody needs to talk to him, that's all I'm saying. Damn toaster's got his mind all frakked up."

"Well, how would you feel if your girlfriend shot your boss, got you locked up as a traitor, got herself killed by one of your friends and then an exact replica of her showed up alive and knocked up by somebody else?" Racetrack asked.

"Kingston wouldn't know." Starbuck teased. "He's never had a girlfriend that he didn't have to inflate first." Everyone laughed as she threw her money in the pile. "See your five, raise you ten."

"I just feel bad for the guy. Somebody needs to talk to him, see how he feels." Kingston added.

"Maybe we should send Helo." Hotdog chuckled, but quickly gulped it down when he saw the look in Starbuck's eyes.

Kingston looked up as someone walked in the room behind Starbuck. "Hey, Captain. Wanna play?"

"Sure. Deal me in." Apollo said as he sat next to Kingston. He looked at the woman across from him as she considered her cards. "Hey, Starbuck." He nodded to her cautiously.

Kara's eyes rose up and he was met with the usual angry glare. "You guys sure you want to let him in?" She asked the rest of the table. "It's kind of a high stakes game."

"It is?" Hotdog laughed in disbelief.

"Yeah." She said, never taking her narrowed eyes off of Apollo. "The Captain here is all about playing it safe. Maybe he just doesn't want to take the chance that something might get messy."

Apollo stared back at her. "I think I can handle it."

"So, Apollo," Racetrack tried to change the subject as she dealt the cards. "We were talking about the Chief. We think somebody should sit down and talk with the guy before he has a nervous breakdown. Who better than the CAG?"

"Oh, I don't really think Captain Adama should be the one to do it." Starbuck corrected, moving her cards around in her hand. "Touchy situation like that, you might have to actually show _real_ emotion, instead of just telegraphing out what you think the appropriate response would be."

The others at the table quickly caught on to the tension between them.

"Are we in the middle of something here?" Kingston asked nervously, looking back and forth between Starbuck and Apollo.

"No." Lee answered, smiling minutely as he looked at everyone else at the table but her. "This is just what we do. She pushes my buttons and I push hers."

Kara felt the rage boil inside her veins. "Sweetheart, based on all the gossip I've heard about you, you wouldn't be able to _find_ my buttons with two hands and a flashlight."

Eyes got wide and nervous gulps were heard coming from the throats of everyone else at the table. Apollo just stared her down. She stared back with the same fuming intensity.

"Maybe we should leave." Hotdog suggested to the others.

"Anybody moves from this table and they'll be on head-cleaning duty for the week." Apollo seethed through clenched teeth as he never took his eyes from Kara's. "You got something to say to me, Lieutenant?"

"Not a thing." She answered coldly. "Obviously you feel the same way since the only words you've uttered to me in days have been 'Hey, Starbuck'."

"Fine." He sneered as he leaned forward in his seat. "You want some words? How about these: Why don't you get the hell outta here before one of us winds up in sickbay and the other one winds up in the brig?"

"Great idea." She said caustically as she stood up. "I'll go work on my needlepoint."

They all watched her go and all stared back at Apollo.

"Stupid, arrogant little……" Kara muttered to herself as she walked through the hatch.

"Stupid, insubordinate little….." Lee muttered under his breath as he ran his hands over his head.

* * *

The next day he found her by herself in the ready room going over flight lists. She tried to ignore him as he walked through the door.

"Hey, Starbuck." He taunted her, standing there with his arms crossed.

She looked up at him in angry disbelief. "Do you _want_ me to murder you? You got some sort of death wish? Is that what this is?"

He spun around quickly and slammed the door shut, leaving them alone in the room before he turned back to her. "I don't know _what_ the hell THIS is, but you better grow the hell up and get your act together. I can't decide if you're acting more like a bratty five year old or a raging, cold-hearted bitch. I'm starting to think it's a perfect combination of both. And I've never met anybody that could pull that off before. You're really quite amazing, Kara." He screamed at her.

She closed her eyes to mask the fury in them. "Figures the first time you ever call me amazing, you'd find a way to make it an insult."

He sighed, thoroughly and utterly exasperated. "I thought we'd moved past this."

She brought her hand up to cradle her forehead. "It's funny, I thought we'd moved past this too, but obviously not; since we're back to frakking _square one_! I thought that maybe after everything we'd said to each other that we could both let go of our defenses long enough to _act_ on the words we said. But since we can't, I figured that we'd just go back to fighting, because it's what we do best. And that would usually be fine with me. But you see, now I have this added bonus that every time you stare at me it's with this look of hot-blooded possessiveness like you think I _belong_ to you or something and it's driving me _frakking_ _CRAZY!"_

She angrily threw the papers down and stormed out of the room, leaving him trembling, and gobsmacked, and _totally_ turned on.

_You gotta lose control. Let your instincts take over._

_I thought we were just sparring._

_That's why you don't win._

-finis


	2. Chapter 2

Kara was walking down the corridor, desperately hoping that she could continue to avoid Lee. She had managed it all afternoon, but now she was off her maintenance shift and he was off his shift in CIC. They would run into each other sooner or later, she just prayed that it was later. She continued down the hallway, expecting to hear his maddening greeting at anytime. The corridor was a heavily traveled one. She could have taken a lesser used hallway to avoid him, but why the hell should she? She had told him what was going on. It was his problem now, he was the emotionally stunted one and if he thought……..

She was so involved in her internal rant that she didn't notice the body that fell in step beside her until a hand grabbed her arm and threw her into the nearest open room.

"What the…..?" She said harshly before her eyes adjusted to the only light in the small room: a low wattage orange caution light that was in the corner. She heard the hatch shut and when her pupils dilated she looked into the blue eyes that she had been trying to avoid. They were smoky and intense and staring right back at her. His face was inches from hers, his body pressed her into the wall.

He lowered his eyes to her mouth. "Hey, Starbuck." He whispered fervently.

"Captain." She replied softly. It was amazing how frightened those words came out when the only emotions that were flooding her body at his close proximity were passion and anticipation. She bit her lip to keep from moaning.

"Don't bite your lip like that, Kara. You don't know what that does to me." He closed his eyes and the fingers of his right hand clenched in their place on her hip. She bit her lip harder. "I'm not the only one with a look that drives someone crazy."

"No?" She asked, surprised that she could hear her own whisper above the sound of her thumping heart.

He nodded. "And if I give you a look like I think you belong to me…… it's because I think you _do_." He brought his hand up to her ribcage. "And if I fight with you, it's because fighting with you is better than the best sex I've ever had in my life. I can't imagine what it'll be like when I finally have sex with you."

"_When_?" She breathed out almost inaudibly. "You make it sound like it's a forgone conclusion." She failed miserably as she tried to add a teasing air to her last statement.

His right hand stayed where it was on her side, his left hand came up to trace the shell of her ear. "Isn't it?" He whispered hotly into her ear. "How long are we gonna do this?" He asked expectantly.

"Fight with each other?" She laughed skeptically. "We'll be fighting with each other until we're both in our graves."

"That's not what I meant and you know it." He said leaning into her more, even though she hadn't thought that was possible.

"Oh." She said bringing up her hand to grip his shoulder. "You mean how long are we gonna pretend that we're not together?"

He blinked at her, surprised that she said the exact words that had been running through his head. "Yeah."

"We're _not_ together." She said digging her fingers painfully into his flesh.

He winced and then took her hand from its death grip and held it in his own. "Only in the literal sense." He brushed his lips over her fingers.

She breathed deep. "Literal sense is the only one that matters." She sighed sadly. "Life's too short to live in the figurative."

"You think this isn't real?" He said intertwining their fingers.

"No." She corrected. "This is real. We just haven't acted on it yet."

He raised her hand and pinned it up against the wall. "Well, we'll have to do something about that, won't we?"

"I see." She stuttered in a breath of anticipation. "Have you worked out the logistics?"

He blinked at her, confused. "No. I guess I just thought that we should feel our way through it."

She chuckled low in her chest. "Leave it to you that the first time you try to act on instinct is the one time you shouldn't." She saw his questioning look and continued. "Spontaneity is a wonderful thing unless you're packed on a ship with 2500 other people that are all dying to know your business. Everyone else knowing every detail won't make this any more real than if we keep it to ourselves."

"People already think that we're sleeping together, Kara."

"They _think _it. They don't _know_ it for sure. There's a difference."

"I do kinda like the idea of not having to share this with anyone, of having this just be ours for a while." He leaned in and she felt his breath tease her eyelashes.

"It's true that you and I sleep in the same room, but there are also eight other people in there with us. It's true that we can find a way to be together, but there has to be a cover. It's not like I can get up from the table, grab you and say 'Nobody come into the laundry closet for a while, I'll be busy doing the CAG'." She grinned slyly.

He lowered his head sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess I was more focused on doing it and less focused on how to get it done."

"We can't ignore duty." She said firmly.

"Of course not." He affirmed.

"Or protocol."

"_You're_ worried about breaking protocol?" He laughed.

"When have I ever been worried about breaking protocol?" She said sarcastically. "But _you_ suddenly start doing it and people are gonna know something's up."

"That is true. So we have to keep up appearances, act the way we did before. And we can't use our positions of authority to make this happen."

"No," She breathed out softly. "Because that would be wrong." She bit her lip at him again.

Lee closed his eyes, the desperation and desire etched on his face. "Bite your lip like that again and I'll say 'frak what's wrong' and intimidate, manipulate and cajole until I make it so that you and I are alone in a room with a bed for several hours." He uttered feverishly.

"Mmmm, that's tempting, but like we just said…….that would be an abuse of power, and that would be wrong." She bit her lip again, but his eyes were still closed so she wasn't doing it just to torture him.

"So what do we need to do?" He asked softly as he opened his eyes and twirled the soft ends of the tendrils of hair that had come loose from her ponytail.

She thought for a moment. "We need to be attuned to each other, we need to be on the same page, and we need to be innocuous; subtle. Something where other people won't know that we're really saying: 'come over here and rip my clothes off.'"

"I would round up every last cigar in the fleet for you if you would say that in the middle of the pilot's briefing." He grinned at her as she laughed softly. "But I see your point. We need a signal, a code."

"I could just bite my lip." She smiled.

"You could, but I thought I'd just told you that would be torturous and cruel of you to do that to me." He thought for a second. "I could give you an exasperated look whenever I wanted you."

"If you and I had sex every time you gave me an exasperated look, we'd be frakking all the time." She moved to where her mouth was centimeters from his, but didn't touch them as she traced the clusters on his jacket.

"I'm trying _really _hard to think of that as a _bad _thing." He smirked as his fingers danced across her shoulder. "We could say that we needed to 'go over training evals'."

"That could work." She agreed excitedly, suddenly entranced by the way his jaw was clenched as he stared at her lips. "We're the only one's that ever do that."

"We would be alone in a room, no one would bother us." He took his thumb and touched her bottom lip. "We'd just have to find the right time, find _each other_, and then say the words."

"Excuse me, Captain; do you think we could go over training evals?" She clenched her hand in his shirt.

"That's the code." He confirmed.

"No, Lee." She whispered as she moved a leg in between his and licked her lips. "I'm not repeating it for verification purposes. I'm saying: 'Do you think we could go over training evals?'."

He gulped. "Here? Now?"

"We're alone in a room, no one's going to bother us, we've already found each other, and I just said the words."

He blinked and looked around the room questioningly. Then he looked at her and everything else in the universe stopped. "Yeah, uh-huh, works for me."

She grabbed his collar and ran her lips up his neck, over his jaw, tracing his cheekbone. He placed both of his arms against the wall on either side of her. He buried his face in her hair and whispered. "You realize this will change everything."

She found his ear and gently bit the lobe. "Gods, I hope so."

He lowered his hands to her waist then slowly lifted back up, underneath her shirt. His eager hands had just met her bare skin when………

"_ACTION STATIONS, ACTION STATIONS, SET CONDITION ONE THROUGHOUT THE SHIP." _Gaeta's voice rang through the P.A. A siren blared and the orange caution light that had been illuminating them was now blinking harshly.

Lee pulled back from her and looked at the flashing light. "You gotta be frakking kidding me."

She wrenched his face back to hers as her lips found his neck. "Ignore it." She mumbled insistently. "There are no Cylon raiders, it's just a drill."

"_INCOMING CYLON RAIDERS, THIS IS NOT A DRILL."_

She pulled back from him hastily as well. "Frakking Gaeta!"

"We gotta go." He grumbled.

"This isn't over." She warned him firmly as they disentangled themselves.

He pushed her back up against the wall and kissed her hard on the mouth. "I had no illusions that it was." He rasped out before they ran off in different directions.

* * *

Lee was exhausted, utterly and completely exhausted. Was there a stronger word than exhausted? He was sure that there was, he just couldn't think of it at the moment. Oh well, he'd have plenty of time to go over his thesaurus as he laid in his rack tonight, NOT having sex with Kara. _23 hours_. 23 frakking hours since he had been in that closet with her, 23 hours since he had been anywhere close to her, 23 hours where all he had wanted was the chance to be near her again; alone, touching her. He had just spent six hours on the most boring CAP in the world, where all he could do was think of the delectable things that he could do to her. And now he got to spend the next eight hours in a room with her……..and at least six other pilots. _Not_ alone, _not_ touching her, _not_ doing delectable things. 

He slowly opened the hatch, fortifying himself, wondering just how in the hell he was going to deny himself, when he saw her; alone in the room. She was changing out of her dress uniform into her sweats in front of her locker.

"Hey, Starbuck." He breathed as he shut the hatch.

She looked up from where her hands were zipping up her shirt and gave him a shy look. "Apollo." She nodded in greeting and continued to look in her locker.

He walked up to his locker directly across from hers. They now stood back to back, languishing in the silence. _Silence._ _Wait? _"Where is everybody?" He asked intrigued.

"Somebody suggested a card game. Helo and Hotdog are there. Everybody else is on shift."

His heart stopped. So did his breath. When they resumed, both were hard and fast. He struggled not to yelp with joy. "That's…..that's an unusual coincidence, everybody else being on shift." He said quietly, apprehensively, as he started to shrug off his flight jacket, surprised that his shaking hands could function to unsnap the buttons.

"Yeah." She said quietly. "Funny how that happened _exactly_ the way I scheduled it."

_Oh. My. Gods. Breathe, Adama. Don't want to seem too eager. Would it seem too eager if I grabbed her and frakked her on the floor? _"So you rigged the schedule?" He teased. "I thought we weren't going to misuse our authority."

"I _didn't_ misuse my authority." She corrected. "The schedule needed to be filled. I just……_chose wisely_."

"And Helo and Hotdog playing cards, did you give them that suggestion?" He stuttered, trying to sound non-chalant as he stepped out of his flight suit.

"Captain," She chuckled as she turned around to lean against the locker and looked at his back. "I _gave_ them the deck."

He stood there in his shorts and tanks and touched his forehead to the cool metal of his locker door as contrast to his brain that was now on fire. "So," He choked out. "Were you ever planning on putting me out of my misery?"

"Well, that depends." She smiled sultrily as he _finally_ turned around to face her. "Were you talking about 'going over training evals', or me shooting you in the head?"

He gave her a devouring look and slowly bridged the distance between them as he placed both of his hands on the locker behind her, boxing her in. She could feel the hot air escape as he breathed against her lips. "I'm thinking either way, I'm gonna end up dead."

She whimpered low in her throat and brought her hand up to stroke his arm. "Yeah, but won't it be worth it?" She grinned.

"Kara?" He whispered as he locked eyes with her.

"Um-hmm?"

"Stop talking."

She nodded and he kissed her. Holy gods, did he kiss her. He heard her gasp and he felt like he was going to eat her alive, exploring every new crevice and facet of this woman that he thought he had known everything about. _Gods, how could I have been so stupid as to believe there wasn't more to her? _More aspects of her that he could discover everyday.

She couldn't breathe. '_I can't breathe.' _Her lungs cried out. '_I don't care.' _Her mind answered back.

She clutched her hands on his shoulders, digging her nails into his skin. The kiss was momentarily broken as he hissed at the shock of the pain. "Sorry." She whispered as she licked across his bottom lip. "I keep doing that."

"Don't apologize." He breathed as he met her tongue. He ran his hand along the waistband of her pants and then tried to unzip the zipper of her top. His hands we're shaking so much that he couldn't steady them on the pulley. _That was new._ He'd done this with other women so many times he had lost count. He'd gotten suavely undressing the opposite sex down to a fine art. So why did he feel like a trembling teenager this time?

"Kara……" He mumbled as he nibbled her bottom lip while he gasped for air. "Kara….." He pulled more insistently on the zipper as she ravished his mouth, dueling with his tongue. "Kara, uh…..I can't get this frakking thing to budge."

"Rip. It. Off." She hissed.

She heard the fabric of her shirt rip and she took her arms out of it as she shrugged it off. He took it in his hands, but instead of dropping it to the floor in a delirious daze, he held onto it tightly like a sort of souvenir. He leaned down to slide her pants off her legs, she stepped out of them, he rose back up to meet her and she wrapped her arms around him.

"Gods, you smell good." She whispered huskily as he moved his lips down to her neck. "You've been in a cockpit for six hours, how is it possible you smell so good?"

He pulled back to look at her with a drunk look in her eyes. "You are just…..and I am just so……and I have never in my life……"

"I know." She breathed out before she pulled him down again to meet her lips. Their mouths danced and their bodies slumped against her locker limply, too inundated with intense feeling to do anything but kiss, breathe in each other, and battle to keep their throbbing hearts in their chests.

"NO! Forget it!" A distant, muffled voice seeped through the walls. Kara thought absently that it sounded like somebody else. But that couldn't be, there was no one else in the universe but her and Lee, was there?

Then she heard a loud thump.

"What was that?" She pulled back as he rained kisses over her face.

"What was what?" He graveled.

"You didn't notice that noise?" She breathed.

"Um, Kara? I don't know if you realize what's going on here, but I wouldn't notice a damn Cylon raiding party if it came busting into the room." He moved his mouth down to her collarbone.

"Aww, come on, Hotdog! Come on back!" Another voice called out. It was distant like the first one, but it was definitely getting closer.

"Okay." She threaded her fingers into his hair and pulled back to meet his eyes. "You heard _that_, right?"

The hatch jerked open suddenly, revealing Helo and Hotdog. Kara and Lee pulled apart quickly as if they had been scorched. He stood in the middle of the room, hair in disarray, mouth red and swollen, breathing like he had just run five miles. She stayed plastered against her locker, breathing just as hard, her exposed skin flushed to a dark pink hue.

Lee noted that she was in just her underwear. She pointed at his hand which still gripped her shredded shirt. He threw the garment into the corner of his bunk. She reached down, picked up her pants off the floor and tossed them into her locker before the two other men noticed they were in the room.

"Hotdog, stop being such a baby." Helo hissed out.

"I'm not being a baby." Hotdog shot back and then turned to Lee. "Hey, CAG, I thought you were on CAP?"

"I just got back." Lee choked out as he sat on his bunk and sheepishly put his pillow on his lap to hide his obvious excitement.

"Hi, Starbuck." Helo nodded at her, taking notice of her exerted look. "You been out on a run?"

She took a deep breath. "Um yeah….came back here to….um, change clothes." She stuttered as she pulled her pants out of her locker and put them back on. "I thought you guys were playing cards?" She asked irritated as she grabbed another shirt and slipped it over her head.

"We were, but Hotdog doesn't want to play anymore." Helo added the last part in a mocking baby-voice.

"I don't play with cheaters." Hotdog responded.

"I wasn't cheating!" Helo snapped.

"Then how do you explain how you won every hand?"

"I'm the only one in the room that actually knows how to play. If Starbuck's not playing, I really don't have any competition."

"I'm not playing with you! I'd rather stay in here with the non-cheaters." Hotdog shouted as he climbed into his bunk and hunkered down to read a comic book.

Upon realizing that Hotdog wasn't going anywhere, Kara shot Lee a disappointed and disgusted look. Lee rubbed his hands all over his face and shook his head.

"Fine, I still want to play. I'll just find some non-_whiners_ to start up a game." Helo shot back before looking at Lee. "Captain, you wanna play?"

Lee realized that he could not walk anywhere without attracting some obvious attention. "Um, no." He stuttered pushing the pillow further into his lap. "I'm really not feeling too well."

"Yeah." Helo added. "You do look a little flushed." Lee heard Kara snort in amusement as Helo continued. "I'm going back to the rec room." Helo said opening the hatch before turning back to Kara. "Starbuck, were you gonna come?"

She chuckled ruefully at the underlying meaning to his question. "Well, I thought I was going to. _But I guess not."_ She hissed out before slamming her locker shut and walking out the hatch.

Helo took in the not-so-subtle innuendo of her remark, their disheveled and breathy behavior and appearance, and the CAG's obvious discomfort. His eyes got wide as he began to put it all together.

"Um, sorry for the interruption, Apollo." Helo chuckled slightly and raised his eyebrows. "Really, really, _really_ sorry."

Lee angrily pointed to the hatch. "Get the hell outta here." He hissed.

Helo shrugged and walked out, pulling the hatch shut behind him. Lee leaned backward from his place on the edge of the bed and didn't even wince at the loud thunk his head made when it hit the wall.

* * *

Lee didn't know when Kara had come back into the bunkroom later that night. In deference to his aching body's desperation, he had closed the curtain on his rack as tight as he could, pulled the blanket up over his head and clutched her shirt tightly under his pillow. 

Sometime during the night, during the respite of the other pilots snoring; he heard her breathing intermingled with frustrated sighs. He knew the feeling, and he knew that neither one of them had slept.

When he and several of the other pilots woke up early the next morning to go on their shifts, he tried with all his might not to stare at her still-curtained bunk. When he gotback to the room later that afternoon, her curtain was wide open and her rack was empty. He shucked his uniform and padded into the shower room.

Kara stood underneath the spray and let the hot water fall over her body. It wasn't relaxing; it wasn't warm and soothing, because she had turned the heat on to its highest level. It was scorching and scalding and damn near painful. She had done that on purpose, so that she wouldn't linger in the shower for very long. She knew that if she did, if she let her hands slowly drift over her body and tangle in her hair, that she would start to imagine that they were _his_ hands. So she made the heat damn near unbearable, so that she would get clean and then get gone. It was a trick that she had learned that she thought was better than cold water, because after you got out of the shower, you had the raw, heated flush on your skin reminding you that you didn't want to get burned.

Except, she _did_ want to get burned……….. by him, his heat. Okay, maybe the hot water wasn't the best idea after all.

She turned off the water and took a deep breath as she wrapped a towel around herself. She opened the stall door and her knees went weak and her whole body hummed at the sight of him.

He was leaning against the door opposite her stall. "Hey, Starbuck." He breathed out and winked at her while grinningan anticipatory grin.

She smiled back at him, steady in her place in the stall doorway. "Hello, Lee." She answered teasingly. "Whatcha doin'?"

He pointed to the shower behind her. "Waiting for you to get done in there, I need a shower."

"And you need _this_ stall, because there _aren't_ about ten other vacant stalls in the room?"

He smiled shyly and lowered his head. "You caught on to my clever ruse."

"You're remarkably transparent." She winked before stepping toward him. "Sooo…..you wanna 'go over training evals'?"

"Desperately." He sighed and closed his eyes as he moved to where he was directly in front of her.

"Well…….unless that towel of yours has secret compartments; you don't have the evals on you." She breathed as her index finger traced the top of the towel on his waist.

"That's okay." He smirked lasciviously, taking her finger and intertwining it with his. "I don't need papers in front of me to get the job done." He nodded behind her. "Why don't you go back in there?"

"Now, why would I do that?" She teased. "I'm already clean."

"Hmmm." He whispered seductively. "I can make you dirty again."

She turned around to walk back in and looked back at him. "With an offer like that, how can I refuse?"

He followed her in the stall, closing it and then turned her back around to face him. She dropped her towel to the floor and he reached out to place his hand on her chest.

"Your heart is racing." He said hotly.

She leaned up to brush her lips lightly over his. "Your hands are trembling." She whispered back. "So I guess we're even."

He sucked on her earlobe. "Guess so." He roamed his hands all over her, eliciting criminally sexy whimpers from her throat. He then started to chuckle softly.

"What?" She asked slightly embarrassed. He could feel the smile on her lips as they moved across his cheek. They still weren't pressed together, almost as if they were afraid to give themselves over to what they were sure was going to burn them to a cinder.

He pulled back to look into her fiery eyes, making sure their mouths were centimeters apart, he smiled. "The tough as nails Starbuck is the softest thing I've ever felt."

She melted under his gaze. Everything in her body liquefied at the worship he bestowed upon her. "You getting all poetic on me, Apollo?"

"I _am_ the god of poetry."

"So the scrolls say, but still…" She whispered as she leisurely unwrapped the towel from around his waist. "That's a side of you I've never seen before."

"Never felt the desire to reveal it before." He traced her lower lip with his finger. "Besides, I knew a certain woman that would have teased me mercilessly if I ever had."

"Yeah?" She questioned as she bit his finger and he nodded in response. "Well, she won't do that now. Although, I gotta tell ya……. the flattery really isn't all that necessary. You've _already_ got me naked in a shower stall."

She grinned and he finally pulled her to him. He heard a gasp and then a loud, brazen moan echo through the tiled room. His ego swelled with pride. "While I love the response…….tone it down a bit," He mumbled between mind-blowing kisses. "You keep that up and people will hear you through the walls."

"What are you talking about?" She whimpered absently when she pulled back for a breath. "I thought that was _you_."

He started in licking a path from her ear to her collarbone as his hands danced up her spine. "Nah, too girly for me, that was _definitely_ you."

"_Oh, Adam!"_ The voice loudly moaned.

They pulled back from each other as if they'd been electrocuted. "Okay, that definitely _wasn't _me." She whispered harshly.

Lee looked over the edge of the stall. "There are other people in here! Three stalls over."

She put her hands on her hips and looked at him in irritation. "You didn't check the stalls first?"

"Kara!" He snapped back at her. "Twice we've tried to do this, and _twice _we've failed. I saw that you were in here and everything else just sorta faded away."

"Oh, Adam!" The voice again cried out.

"Who the hell is Adam?" He whispered to her. Then realization hit. "Wait a minute. That's Greyshirt!"

"_Greyshirt's_ getting laid?" Kara questioned in total amazement. "Who's the girl?" She rose to the tips of her toes and looked over. "That's Ensign Watson, from communications."

"I thought she was seeing Ensign Cooper?"

"She _is_," Kara chuckled. "But apparently she can frak whoever she wants, whenever she wants; which is frankly an attribute I'm beginning to admire."

"Oh yeah, that's good, oh yeah!" The male voice moaned out.

Lee looked at her, his eyes smoldering. "They seem, um, they seem a bit _distracted._ I doubt they'd even realize we were here."

Her eyebrows raised in surprise at his bold suggestion. "That's not exactly being covert."

"Covertness is directly proportionate to desperation. I think the secret agent stuff flew out the window about 2 minutes ago for me," He shrugged. "As long as we're quiet……."

She looked him up and down and then licked her lips as she crooked her finger in a 'come-hither' gesture. This time, when he pulled her against him, she wrapped her arms and legs around him and clung to him with every ounce of strength she had. They heard the moans again. "Ignore them." She ordered in a breathy gasp.

"Ignore who?" He mumbled against her skin.

"Oh Stacy." "Oh, Adam" "Oh, gods YES!" They kept getting louder and louder and louder…..

"Okay, you know what?" She reluctantly pulled away from him again. "I can't do this, it's too--."

"Pressurizing?" He finished for her as he reached down to pick up her towel. But before he gave it to her, he pulled it back. "You know what? Frak that. We're doing this….screw the distractions. Let's get this over with."

She rolled her eyes sarcastically. "Oh, that makes me feel special."

"Kara, for frak's sake! It's not always gonna be like this. But I'm beginning to think this is some kind of cosmic joke and we're never gonna get to the punch line unless we do this thing already." He walked up to her and placed his hands on her hips. "Come on, let's just bite the bullet."

"Well as lovely as that sounds," She sneered pulling away and grabbing her towel from his hands. "I can't. I have a shift in fifteen minutes."

"Why the _hell_ didn't you mention that before?"

"Cause I thought you'd be coming at me with something a little better than 'bite the bullet'. I guess the poeticism is fleeting." She wrapped the towel around her and moved to the exit.

He gently grasped her wrist and looked at her in taut desperation. "When do you get off?"

She sighed and smiled sympathetically. "Oh, Captain. I think you and I both know the way things are going it could still be quite a while before I'll be 'getting off'."

He watched as she walked out and shut the stall behind her. He moved under the nozzle and turned the water on as cold as he could.

"Oh gods, oh baby, oh yeah."

Lee pounded on the stall wall as hard as he could. "Will the two of you shut the hell up before I throw you both in hack?"

* * *

It was some time later before he saw her again, and then in what he was sure was a situation that had the gods laughing hysterically from their place in the heavens, he was in a room with her, his father and Colonel Tigh.

He walked into the room and saw her sitting at the table. She looked at him sympathetically and he took the only chair that was left at the table, right next to her. He noticed that they were both working hard at not looking directly at each other. And though they were by no means pressed together, he could still sense every flutter, every movement, and every slight permutation coming off of her. He was more attuned to the various aspects of her body than his own. It was killing him. Could he grab her and throw her on the table and have his way with her right there? Would that be improper? Would his father and Tigh even look up from their reports? He spent the next few seconds going over the pros and cons of such a bold move……..

Pros- he'd be having sex with her.

Cons- there _weren't_ any; he'd be _having SEX WITH HER._

………when his father spoke up to ask Kara how the training evaluations were going.

Lee swore she almost choked.

"Fine." She hesitated. "The _instruction assessments_……"

Lee had to suppress a laugh at her thoughtful rephrasing.

"……are going fine." She finished. "We hit a few roadblocks," Kara looked over at Lee as he coughed meaningfully. "But we'll get the job done."

Twenty minutes later, the meeting was breaking up and everyone was going their separate ways. Lee got up from his chair at the exact time that Kara was crossing behind it and they ran right into each other. He had to reach out for her arms to keep her from falling down.

"Sorry." He rasped out as he held onto her. "I…….I'm sorry. Sorry. I'm sorry." He said looking right at her.

"That's okay." She breathily chuckled. "I don't think you broke anything."

He smiled as she started to move away. "I'm sorry about the other thing too." He called after her.

She stopped and walked back. "What other thing?"

"Well," He hesitated. "The entire thing." He saw the look of fear spread across her face and made to correct his statement. "No, Kara. I didn't mean that. I didn't mean that I was sorry it's happening, just that I was sorry about the _way_ it's happening."

She sighed. "That's not your fault."

"Still….." He said. "I wanted it to be special, I wish it was special. Because you deserve to have it be……"

"Special?" She finished, teasing him. He smiled shyly and she smiled sweetly back at him. "When we finally catch a break, and it actually _does_ happen, wherever or however, I'll think its special enough." She reached up to smooth the uniform jacket over his shoulder and then started to walk away.

Again he stopped her with his voice. "I know you haven't said it. Maybe you _won't_ ever say it, maybe you're not the kind of person that _does_ say it, but I was wondering if you--?"

She leaned against the door frame of the now vacant-except-for-them room and gave him a very serious look. "If I look at you like I think you belong to me." She paused to bite her lip and then smiled. "It's because I think you do."

He looked at her soberly. "Again, I'm really sorry."

She nodded and then left the room.

* * *

She waited for him outside of CIC. She had thirty, maybe forty-five seconds in which to send him a clear message. They had simultaneous six hour shifts. His in CIC, hers on CAP, and then they were both free for six hours. They could go over training evals. They could go over training evals again and again and again………… 

She giggled. '_What the hell is wrong with you?' _She thought to herself. '_You've giggled more in the last three days than you have in your whole life. Get it together. Starbuck does NOT giggle.' _Then she saw him walking towards her and she decided that giggling was better than a jubilant scream. He was focused on reading the papers in his hands. '_He is a very driven, focused, thorough individual. I bet that's an asset OUT OF a Colonial Fleet uniform as well.'_

He quickly came up to where she was but still didn't notice her. She grabbed his arm and dragged him into a corner to where they were hidden away by some crates. His eyes widened in surprise and then got very smoky with anticipation as he instinctively wrapped his arms around her waist. She pinned him up against the wall, making sure that every part of the front of her body touched every part of the front of his. She moved his head up so that his eyes broke the bold perusal of her body and devoured his mouth with her own. She let her body slide against his, doing exceptionally naughty things and she heard a low growl in the back of his throat. She wanted to give him an inkling of what was to come, what was to come when they had no annoying barriers like stupid clothes between them. She wanted to show him……but yeah, she only had thirty seconds. So this would have to do. She started to pull away. He moaned desperately and tried to pull her back to him, but she broke free. Her breathing was heavy and erratic as she looked at him, just as out of breath.

"Apology accepted." She whispered in the gravelliest, sexiest voice she had. Then she walked away on shaky legs, hoping that he had gotten the message.

* * *

Apparently he hadn't. 

"Frakking moron." She muttered to herself as she laid on a trolley on the flight deck and tried to move the wrench around a particularly stubborn piece of equipment embedded in the undercarriage of the Viper above her.

She had gotten off CAP and had hastily made her way into the showers. She had gone to great lengths to ensure that she had enough time to get ready for him. She had even shaved her legs. _Did he have any idea what the hell that meant?_ Her whole body was tingling with anticipation when she got back to the bunk room. Lee would be coming in soon. The hatch had opened and she held her breath. But it was just Frosty.

"Frosty?" She had said. "I thought you were supposed to be on shift?"

"I was." Frosty replied. "I had to change."

"With who?" She asked off-handedly as she rubbed on lotion. (Another special occurance, _frakking_ _moron._)

"Captain Adama."

She nearly dropped the lotion bottle. "Apollo?"

"Yeah, I asked to switch shifts. I had something I needed to take care of."

"So, _you_ requested the change?" She asked softly.

"Yeah."

So Lee _wasn't_ rejecting or ignoring her, he just couldn't read a gods damn schedule, or take a damn hint.

"Frakking moron." She muttered to herself again as she turned the wrench harshly.

She had figured that since she couldn't spend her off time acting out her desires on the man she _wanted the most_, she'd spend it taking out her frustrations on the machine she _knew the best._

"Hey, Starbuck." His voice called out to her softly.

She looked over and only saw his feet. _Gods, even his feet were sexy._ "Captain." She greeted him coldly.

"Hi, Captain Adama." Cally said coming up beside him.

"Hi, Cally. How are you?" He replied politely.

"I'm fine. Here are those pliers you wanted, Starbuck." She said as she reached down to hand them to Kara. She stood up again. "I thought you had switched shifts with Frosty, Captain."

"I had." He stated. "But I switched back with someone……I'm free now."

Kara nearly dropped the pliers in her hand.

"Why'd you switch?" Cally asked innocently.

"I realized I had something else I'd rather be doing."

Kara had to press her legs together to subside the pleasure she feltknowing that the thing he'd rather be doing was, in fact, _her._

"So, um, Starbuck." He started shyly. "Do you think we could 'go over training evals'?"

She pulled herself out from underneath the plane and grinned up at him. "Absolutely."

They walked down the hall quickly, two bodies with one single minded determination.

"Why did you agree to take Frosty's shift when you knew I was off?" She whispered over at him.

"Because I _didn't_ know you were off." He whispered back apologetically. "I didn't realize what the schedule said."

"You _made_ the schedule." She pointed out as they kept walking.

"Then I guess I didn't realize what a frakking moron I am."

"Do you realize it now?"

"Yes, Ma'am." He replied embarrassed.

"Just so we're clear."

"Do _you_ realize how _evil_ you are?" He teased back accusingly.

She laughed. "I assume you're referring to our little hallway encounter?"

"Truly sadistic." He hissed. "You can't just do stuff like that to me and then walk away."

"I didn't want to make you late for your shift."

"I was late for my shift anyway." He said out of the corner of his mouth.

"Why?" She asked curiously.

"Because there are some things that even a strategically placed clipboard can't hide, Kara."

She giggled. "Sorry."

"You're driving me crazy." He sighed. "I find myself doing and thinking things that I never thought I was capable of."

"I know the feeling." She added sympathetically. "I noticed that you were sleeping with my shirt, the one you ripped, under your pillow. That's, um, that's……"

"Sweet?" He questioned hopefully.

"I was gonna say 'creepy'." She teased. "But we'll use you word—it's nicer." She finished as they came to stand before his office door.

He smiled at her nervously. "So," He nodded to the hatch behind her. "That's, um, that's my office." He saw her dissolve into laughter and got worried. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," She gleamed at him as she leaned back onto his door. "It's just, you have the goofiest look on your face," Her eyes turned smoldering. "….and all I can think of is the things I can do to wipe it off."

He moved infinitesimally towards her. "Name them please." He ordered fervently.

She grasped the door handle behind her and she grinned lustfully. "How about I show you?"

"Captain Apollo?" A distant, dignified, but wholly recognizable voice called out from down the hall.

Kara's hand froze on the handle and her head dropped. "Uhhhh….." She groaned softly.

Lee turned to see President Roslin walking towards them. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "This can NOT be happening to me." He rasped out.

"It's not just happening to _you_." Kara hissed back at him.

"Captain Apollo?" Roslin called out again.

He turned toward her. "Yes, Madam President?" He replied as she came to stand before them.

"Oh, I'm glad I caught you." She smiled serenely before nodding to Kara. "Lt. Thrace, it's nice to see you. How are you today?"

"Wonderful, ma'am," Kara faked a smile. "I'm so wonderful I could explode."

The President's face grew puzzled. "That's…that's _nice._"

"Did you need something, ma'am?" Lee asked, hoping that she would say no.

"Yes, actually," Roslin replied. "I've been in meetings with the Quorum delegates from Virgon and Picon all day. And for some reason passing understanding they can't quite grasp why a ship like the _Galactica_ needs more rations than the other ships in the fleet, even though I've explained it to them several times; speaking slowly and using small words. I was thinking that it would register more if it came from a military officer." She paused slightly. "Now, they still have some _trust_ issues with your father and they're not huge fans of Colonel Tigh either, for that matter. And you are the most recognizable military face from our little sojourn to Kobol, so I thought that maybe you could speak to them."

"Well, I—." Lee started.

Roslin interrupted him. "I was going to ask you before, since I thought you were free, but then I discovered that you were on duty. But your father mentioned just now that your schedule has cleared for the next few hours. Did you have something else planned?"

"Nothing that I'd feel comfortable putting on a schedule." He chuckled in irony.

"Excuse me?" She asked simply.

"Actually, there was something that I've been putting off that _really_ needs to get done…."

"Captain." Kara stopped him gently. "This is important, the President needs you."

"But, Lt. Thrace," Lee pleaded. "Major problems could pop up for _certain_ members of this crew if this does not get done soon."

"Still," Kara continued firmly. "If you didn't go with the President, you'd be distracted, and I'd rather have you focused when we……" She hesitantly looked over at Roslin. "…..when we 'go over training evals'."

Lee breathed deeply. "You're right, of course you're right." He looked over at the President. "Ma'am, I am at your disposal."

"Thank you, Captain." Roslin smiled at Lee appreciatively.

Kara moved to walk away and then turned back. "Come get me when you're done and maybe we can find a free hour to 'go over those training evals'." She sighed and then went down the hall.

'_I appreciate your confidence in me, Kara,'_ He thought, looking after her. '_But at this point, I really don't think it'll take any longer than five minutes.'_

* * *

'_Okay.'_ Lee thought. '_Quorum is placated, rations are secure, and President Roslin is back on Colonial One. And it only took four hours.'_ He definitely deserved a reward for that. Hopefully his '_reward'_ would be waiting for him in his office. 

He opened his door and sure enough, he found her there, angrily rummaging through the file cabinet. He leaned against the door. "Hey, Starbuck."

She turned to look at him with a blank expression on her face as he smiled and winked at her.

"You've been gone _four hours_." She said harshly as she turned back away from him.

"I'm back now." He came up behind her and put his hands at her sides.

"Great. So now we only have _two_ hours."

"We can _very _thoroughly go over those evals in two hours." He whispered seductively as he placed a soft kiss at the curve of her neck.

"What if the President needs you again?" She asked coldly.

"You could write me an excuse." He grinned against her skin. "It could say 'Dear Madam President: Please excuse Captain Adama from participating in Fleet matters for a few hours as he will be busy engaging in _long_ overdue, illicit sexual activity with me.'."

"No. That's not gonna happen." She stated simply.

"Well of course not." He laughed, licking a path on her skin. "_That _would be inappropriate."

"No. That's not what I meant." She shrugged out of his grasp. "I meant there won't be any sex."

He blinked, confused and slightly scared. "Wait, you mean _now_?"

She laughed bitterly, frustrated to the verge of tears. "I'm beginning to think _ever._"

"Kara, wait."

"Do you think I've been here in your office _pining_ for you for the last four hours?" She hissed. "No! Since you've been in your little meeting, two of your new 'pilots', and I use the term loosely, have managed to foul up the deck and almost get themselves killed. In the last four hours there has been an avalanche of the most ridiculous, pathetic, tragically frustrating, mind-numbingly irritating, inconceivably stupid and unfixable problems falling down on me. On top of that, I'm beginning to think that the universe _hates us_ and this thing between us is just never gonna happen. But I do know one thing: this has quite possibly been one of the worst days of my life, and that's saying something because I've had _a lot _of bad days. And you can't just come in here, lean against a door frame, smile at me, wink, say 'Hey, Starbuck', and expect me to just drop everything and screw you. That won't make everything better. You can't keep doing that to me! I WON'T LET YOU!" She slammed the file cabinet shut and stormed out of the room.

Lee moped over to his chair, sat down and dropped his head to the desk. "Frak!"

* * *

"Anyways, I told her if she wanted to go I would be there and she could go. But I wasn't going for her; I wasn't gonna leave if she wasn't there; if she did come but then wanted to leave and I wanted stay, I'd stay; and I told her I probably wouldn't hang out with her the whole time. I mean, why should I have to be nice to her and plan things around her schedule just because she's my date?" Hotdog finished. "Anyways, she's totally hot for me." 

The other eight eyes at the table stared at him in amazement.

"Yeah, Hotdog." Joker muttered sarcastically. "Hard to believe anybody sees you as anything other than a born romantic."

"Why have we not dealt yet?" Lee asked, his fingers tapping the table in an irritated gesture.

The others jerked at the hardness in the tone of the CAG's voice.

"No reason." Kingston replied quietly, cautiously.

Lee let out a harsh breath. "Well, it just occurs to me that in the last three minutes that I've been sitting here, _at the CARD TABLE_, I've heard about Joker's stomach ailment, Frosty's video game and Hotdog's dating habits, but what I have yet to see are _cards in my hands_. So somebody get the deck and deal before I set the room on fire." Lee hissed.

"You havin' a bad day, CAG?" Hotdog asked obliviously, grabbing the cards that Frosty dealt to him.

"No." Lee grumbled. "I'm having an absolutely frakking _perfect_ day."

"Really?" Hotdog asked naively, stupidly.

Apollo looked back at him, his eyes full of irritated incredulity. "No, Costanza. Not _really._"

"What seems to be the problem, sir?" Joker asked concerned.

"Well, let's see…..the representatives from Picon and Virgon are acting more like kindergartners playing keep away with valuable, necessary rations than like Quorum delegates. Four of my eight new pilots can't trap a landing to save their lives and as a result, I just spent the last few hours with Sgt. Hadrian answering her questions regarding the investigation of the deck foul-up. We have a _five day_ backlog on Viper repairs and not enough people or supplies to repair them with……and," He paused and chuckled ruefully as he took his cards. "I just managed to wreck the best thing I had going for me in my entire pathetic existence because 'the timing wasn't right'. Well you know what? Frak that. If you want something bad enough you _make it happen_. Screw everything else. Life is too damn short, especially now. But it seems I'm too much of an idiot to realize that, so instead of being where I _desperately_ want to be, I'm stuck here with you losers. And apparently a card game at the end of the day is now going to be the high point of my life. So I guess I get a little upset when it gets delayed by moronic chatter. This game is the only thing I have been looking forward to all afternoon. I just want to sit here and play cards until this crap-hole of a day is over with and I really don't think that there is anything in the universe that could _move me from this chair_."

As he finished his rant, he heard someone clear their throat. When he looked up at the other side of the room where the noise had come from, he saw her there.

She was leaning against the hatch-frame smiling a devious smile. "Hey, Apollo." She bit her lip. "Do you think we could 'go over training evals'?" And she winked.

He gulped. _Loudly._ And the cards in his hands dropped unceremoniously to the table below. He turned to the other players. "Yeah…….okay guys, I'm gonna _go._"

-finis


	3. Chapter 3

Kara Thrace walked onto the flight deck and looked around nervously. "Cally, have you seen Captain Adama?"

"Yeah." The young specialist called back. "He's over there talking to the Chief."

"Thanks." Kara walked over to where the two men were standing and stood quietly until Lee noticed she was there and cut off the conversation with Tyrol.

"Hi." He said softly, looking her up and down.

"Hello, Sir." Kara replied curtly. "We need to go over training evals."

His eyes got wide and a huge grin spread across his face. He then noticed Tyrol's puzzled and curious look and quickly quashed it down. "Sure." He replied seriously.

They walked back to his office and as soon as she closed the door he had his arms around her and was kissing her neck.

"Gods, I missed you." She breathed out as she ran her hands through his hair.

"Likewise." He mumbled.

"I know I just saw you two hours ago, but we haven't been like this since yesterday, and I missed you." She smiled embarrassingly. "That's really ridiculous, isn't it?"

"Completely." He chuckled as he nibbled on her ear.

"Um, Lee?" She started hesitantly.

"Yeah?"

"I know you're gonna think this is the irony of all ironies, but……" She chewed her lip apprehensively as he started to unbutton her shirt.

"What?" He pulled back slightly and looked at her.

"We really DO need to go over training evals." She laughed. "I just saw your father and he wants them by the end of the day."

"Later." He kissed her hard on the mouth and pushed her to where she was sitting on his desk.

"Lee….." She groaned. "Come on. This is important." She whined unconvincingly even as her hands started to unbuckle his belt. "When this whole thing started we agreed that we wouldn't shirk duty and I really think that………OH MY GODS, I love it when you do that!" She gasped as he licked a path from the curve of her shoulder to just below her ear.

"Noticed." He teased as he brushed his lips over her temple.

"You're being remarkably concise with the words, Captain Adama." She said as she placed a kiss on his chin. "When did that happen?"

"Yesterday." He grinned as his hands danced up her sides.

She lowered her head sheepishly and closed her eyes, remembering the way his face lit up as the words '_I love you'_ had fallen out of her mouth when she was with him the last time. "So, you liked me saying that?"

"Definitely." He raised her head back up and kissed her eyelids.

"Well," She wrapped her legs around him. "In that case, maybe I should do the talking more often."

"Okay." He stroked his fingers up her spine.

"But Lee?" She pecked him lightly on the lips.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think that when I speak to you, you could respond with something more than one word phrases?" She chuckled as she moved her lips across his cheek.

"Yes." He laughed.

"Oh yeah?" She teased, looking directly in his eyes. "Give it a try. It doesn't have to be a whole long speech, maybe just, oh I don't know…………_two_ words."

"Kara?" He breathed before a sweet smile spread across his face.

"Yeah?" She grinned back as he traced a finger down her cheek.

"Me too."

THE END……..for good this time.


End file.
